ok, so i have 2 corn snakes, both living seperately. i feed them once a week and spot clean once a week/whenever i see any waste. i am new to owning reptiles as i rescued them from my brother who wasnt looking after them. the first one, monty looks very healthy and the vet said he’s a perfect specimen, rare and other than being a little small he’s very healthy. first of all, i wandered if monty would grow to a normal size now im feeding him regularly, or will he always be slightly small?
ok, so my second snake is called big red (imaginative, eh? lol) he was rescued from my brother before he lost interest in them and he was in a terrible state. when we got him he was in a chameleon terrerium and had only enough room to ‘fold in half’, he was permanently unable to stretch out or exercise and it seems that even though he has a big terrerium now, he still only goes in half of it and goes around in circles (is that called repetitive behaviour? i remember hearing about it in zoos, but i didnt think reptiles suffered from it?- can i cure that or will it harm him physically?)
also, his old home was extremely smelly. the previous owner admitted to us he had gone on a business trip for 7weeks, hadnt fed red since before then, and hadnt cleaned him out at all since he’d had him, which was for 8months- before that, red had been with ANOTHER irresponsible owner for several years-he was sold because red had eventually got out and ate the guy’s sister’s hamsters.
i took him to the vets at the same time as monty, the vet said i needed to monitor his weight every week and watch for weight loss, if he loses weight over 3 weeks i need to book him in to have an operation to remove some ‘persistant parasitic lumps’ he has about 6-8 of these lumps on his body and had antibiotics to make them go down- which they did, a little bit. also, he had shedding problems, the tip of his tail came off so the vet treated that with the antibiotics (used together to fight infection.) he said that red had no mites on him and the parasites are likely to be in cases inside him dormant or dead- only weight loss could tell if further action needed to be be taken. the problem is that we dont know how old red is- he’s definately fully grown and very big. the vet said she didnt know what his chances of survival would be because he’s been mistreated for so long, also, the operation costs £300+… im 19 and dont make enough money to eat every week. i already gave up a lot of my budget to pay for the consultation fees at the vets, and they are letting me off paying staright away for the antibiotics, i owe them £12 and cant pay that so how can i pay for an operation?!
at the time of my visit the vet said to remove all things abrasive in the tank so his tail could heal nicely, he has his heat mat, water bowl and a smooth hide and kitchen towel on the flooring. his tail is healed now so i can handle him again, the problem is that i picked him up today and he has a patch of wrinkly dull scales about 9inches up from the base of his tail, its like the shiney covering has come off them, my mum said it looks like a burn, could it have been off the heat mat because there is no chipping to insulate the heat? or is it something else? i’ve been reading up on snake ailments and saw something about mites and something about scale rot. but the vet said he had no mites, his parasites are internal, likely to be a worm or some sort. as for scale rot, i havent found much about it, but it seems they get it from dirty housing, and im very clean! i have OCD so if they poop in there, it barely has time to settle before i’ve cleaned it up and sprayed with a disinfectant called ‘reptisafe’.
what could be wrong with my snake? it was ‘weighing day’ yesterday and he has gained 5grams of weight, not lost any, so is that good?
Technorati Tags: antibiotics, brother, business trip, chameleon, circles, corn snakes, hamsters, little bit, lumps, mites, repetitive behaviour, reptiles, snake, specimen, terrerium, vet, vets, Weight Loss
